I turned my old 'dumb' home into a 'smart' home — and I'm never going back

My old alarm panel had two features: "on" and "off."
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
I converted an old house, where everything was outdated, into a smart home controled by my smartphone.

I'm never going back.

What makes a home "smart" is the ability to control the security, climate, and electrical devices in your home with your smartphone and/or computer over the internet. That means you can essentially control your home from wherever you are in the world, whether you're at home or on vacation, as long as you have an internet connection.

My home was anything but smart.

The last time the thermostats in my old house got any attention was probably the '70s, and they used little vials of mercury to gauge the temperature, which is considered dangerous and toxic. I had little pods of toxic poison hanging around the walls around my home.

The old alarm system panel couldn't look more '90s if it tried, and its only features were "on" and "off."

So, no one had to twist my arm to update the systems in this house.

Out with the old, in with the new

For the modernization, a smart home company called Vivint sent a super nice rep called Rich to my house to remove the old stuff and install the shiny new stuff.

Rich is getting ready to give my house an overhaul into modernity.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider

Said "stuff" includes an alarm system, a smart doorbell, smart door locks, smart garage door opener, door and window sensors, a sensor that detects the sound of breaking glass, a camera, thermostats, smart outlets, a fire alarm, and a carbon-monoxide alarm. The house is big, so it took over four hours for Rich to remove the old stuff and install the new.

Guess which one is the old thermostat.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider

Amazingly, there's no re-wiring needed.

Every new device Rich installed connects wirelessly to the Vivint main control panel, which replaced the old alarm panel. The new thermostat did need a wired connection to the boiler/air conditioning systems, but it's compatible with the old wiring that's already there. The only drilling Rich had to do was in the doors to install the new sensors.

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The new devices on their own aren't that exciting. What is exciting is what you can do with all those shiny new devices. Here are just a few of my favorite parts about the upgrade:

Use your words

Controlling my home's climate through an app has been great, and I get way more control of when the heat/AC turns on than my old "Chronotherm" thermostat, like separate weekend and "away" scheduling when on vacation.

But there's something even better than controlling the temperature with an app: Controlling the temperature using my voice with the Amazon Echo.

I can say "Alexa, tell Vivint to turn the heat up to 73 degrees," and lo, Alexa and Vivint work together to make it happen. My house is listening for my every command.

The temperature has also been a lot more stable and consistent compared to the old mercury thermostat, which wasn't as sensitive to temperature changes as Vivin't digital thermostat.

I can also tell Alexa/the Echo to arm my alarm and lock my door, or turn on/off lights connected to Vivint's smart outlets, and a whole bunch of other things.

The doorbell is my new favorite gadget

I never imagined I'd be excited about a doorbell. But here I am, excited about a doorbell.

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It has a wide angle camera that covers my whole driveway, and I can watch a live stream of what it sees from my phone. In fact, the angle is so wide that I can see people trying to hide from the camera.

I'm trying to press as far against the wall next to the front door as possible.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider

The video aspect of the smart doorbell is huge.

Having a visual of what's going on at the main entrance of my property while I'm not home is a really, really nice thing to have. No sane home owner would actively prefer to stay oblivious to what's going on outside their front door. Who came to my house while I was gone? Who just rang my doorbell? Who is this sketchy fellow with an unmarked white van and why is he in my driveway?

Keep tabs on who comes to your home when you're gone.
Screenshot from Vivint app

The best part is that I can ask that sketchy guy and his white van why he's at my front door through the doorbell, which has a microphone and speaker I can use with the Vivint Sky app on my smartphone. Turns out he was a contractor coming to check out a leaky roof. All was well.

I also get notifications when people come up to the door and/or when they press the doorbell. It automatically records video into the Vivint cloud when people get close to the doorbell, too. I've never been so aware of what happens around my house when I'm not there, and it gives me peace of mind, which is great.

I haven't used a key in weeks

Instead, I've been using a code on the keypad of the fancy new smart locks, and it's so much better than using a key.

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My favorite part is setting the alarm to arm when I press the lock button as I leave, and disarming it when I punch in the code to get back in. There's no need to unlock the door and punch in the code into the alarm panel like I used to.

I can also make sure the doors are locked and the alarm is set through the smartphone app, and I can set notifications to alert me if they're opened and if the alarm is triggered.

There's so much you can do

You can set your locks, alarm, electrics, and thermostats to do pretty much whatever you want, when you want, through the Vivint Sky app. And you can set notifications that alert you for a variety of things, like if doors/windows are opened, when the camera's motion sensor is tripped, if the garage didn't close properly, etc. The list goes on.

Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider

Cost of a smart home

Vivint's top-tier installation, which is decided by what kind of devices and how many you're installing, costs $99. It's less for smaller installations.

After that, it's a minimum of $60.99/month ($69.99 per month in my case) for the service, which includes security monitoring, control of your security and temperature, and cloud storage for videos from the doorbell and camera (if you get one).

Bottom line

If you own a home — and your budget allows for such a costly service — it's pretty amazing.

The smart doorbell and the visual aspect it offers, as well as the connected security (alarm, locks) that you can control and monitor from your smartphone, are the most valuable features in a smart home system like Vivint's. Being able to see who or what is coming towards your house is invaluable for awareness and peace of mind.

The climate and electronics control is great, too, and they come with the package that include the smart doorbell.